Family Photos

If there were ever any doubts about me being Spanish these should clear it all up. My dad found these photos recently and I had to post them.

My Great-Great Grandpa and Grandma Perea

This is obviously where I get my accordion skills from. (hahaha)

My Great-Great Grandpa and Grandma Alderete

Too bad I couldn't have had that veil.

Alaska

The past week we were able to spend in Alaska and forget the desert heat. Here are some pictures of our trip.

The scenery was beautiful and yes that is a real live bear, which is only about 30 feet away as we traveled in a rubber raft, down river.

Here is a picture of us in the rubber raft safe from the bear and a picture of Jed at Portage glacier, if you look close at the glacier you can see the blue refractions of light.

Out in the wild among the local animals. I prefer ones I've already met before.

The view from on top of the mountain Jed paraglided down! Yikes!

We Wii

Happy Father’s Day Jed! I had to contemplate if my husband was mature enough to be a father when he wants a Wii for Father’s day but Jed insisted it was a family gift and even old people at the senior center do it. I knew he really wanted one when he attempted to buy me one for Mother’s day. Here is how the story goes.
The day before mothers day Jed and Jara go shopping in Las Vegas leaving me alone! Which was a present in and of itself, 5-6 hours of wastefulness. About 3 hours into the shopping call I get a phone call from the credit card company as follows:

Nice credit card man who always says ma’am: Ma’am there have been several purchases in the last couple of hours on your card we would just like to verify these purchases.
Me: (smiling thinking yippee what am I getting? Lots of purchases! Hmmmm?) Oh yes, well my husband is shopping for mothers day its okay.
CC Man: Ma’am we would just like to make sure these are all legitimate purchases. (Lady you are an idiot and don’t know what’s really going on)
Me: Okay (ooo now I will have an idea heeheehee)
CC Man: We have a $$$ amount from Target.
Me: Okay (bedding, yes!)
CC Man: We have a $$ amount from Walden Books.
Me: Okay (new books!)
CC Man: We have a $$$$$$$$$ amount from GAME STOP. In case you're wondering Game Stop sells all kinds of worthless things, like PS3's and XBOX 360's etc.
ME: WHAT!!!!! No that is not approved!!!! Stop that transaction immediately.
CC Man: (Knowingly) Okay ma’am thank you for your time today.

About an hour later…
I get a call from Jed
Jed: Uhh, have you been making our credit card payments?
Me: Innocently, yes why?
Jed: Well I went to buy you something and our card was denied
Me; YES I KNOW THAT IS WHY I TOOK AWAY THE CREDIT CARD THE FIRST TIME! I’M ON TO YOU. I TOLD YOU NOT TO USE THE CARD FOR EVIL PURPOSES!
Jed: Jara told me to get it.
Jed: I went crazy I had everything. A Wii system, nun-chucks, guitar hero, Mario Kart, 2 steering wheels, 2 remote controllers………
Me: The credit card man told me
Jed: Ahhhhhhh!!!!!

And no Jed did not wake up then. But this story does end happily with Jed getting his Wii system on Father’s day and it really is AWESOME!!!! I have now accomplished one of my life goals by kicking Jed’s butt at Wii bowling, not just once but twice! I got a turkey. Virtual bowling is much better kinder to me that real life bowling! So, it is all worth it and it truly is a “family” present. By the way, Jed totally rocks at Guitar Hero!

zebra donkey

Every since Jed and his friends could drive they would go on "campouts". Every time they went they would come back with a story of some great adventure. No one believed half of what they said. Either it was too crazy to be true or it was too scary to let yourself accept. Well on one such occasion Jed and Tyson came back from Meadow Valley wash and swore they saw in the spotlight a "zebra/donkey." This definitely fell into the "too crazy story" category to be believable. All these years (almost ten now) they have stuck to this story. I tried to ask Jed to explain it more in-depth but all he would say is "it was a donkey with stripes." I use this story to tease him when something is "too big to be true." Anyway, imagine my complete horror/surprise when the good old MV Progress runs a story about a new zoo in Moapa complete with a zebra donkey! I am not lying to you folks, I ran a google search on it and this rare phenomenon actually exists. MV progress is not turning into the National Enquirer. I have included a link that will allow you to read the story for yourself.

http://www.mvprogress.com/2008/19/zoo

I want to go to the zoo myself to further investigate this matter but I think you have to be an educational group. Believe me this would be a purely scientific visit.

Blue is the Hue

Announcing...

Baby Boy Wheeler

Arriving the beginning of November

(more to come)

Were you surprised?

Foul Fowl and other Noxious Creatures

There are three things I loathe on this planet more than anything #1 Birds-when I was little I always had long hair and I was pretty sure birds would get caught in it, plus they are unpredictable and squawk a lot. All my encounters with birds have been negative. I once bruised my mom’s arm trying to escape pooping seagulls and I’m pretty sure I heard Cloud Dancer, the evil parakeet, squawking as he was dying locked up in Ashley’s bedroom from paint fumes and did nothing . I repeat, I hate birds. #2 My second loathe is bats-see above for reasons of dislike and then add in the fear of rabies. However, they are number two, due to the fact that they don’t make as much noise. #3 Bane of my existence is waking up before I absolutely have to. I am not a morning person and have been known to berate good boy scout neighbors for saving my trash cans and waking me up. The only one who can get away with waking me up is Jara, barely! But anyway back to my original objective:
Foul fowl and other noxious creatures.
Just so you know, there are 17 species of mockingbird, it is the state bird of Mississippi, and that the mockingbird can imitate up to 100 various sounds and it is ILLEGAL to kill them! Why would anyone want to protect this horrible creature? Wendy, the animal lover, knows more about mockingbirds and may be able to correct me on this information and tried to help me see the beauty of the evil creatures but to no avail. You want to know why? Because there is a deranged mockingbird who lives in my Palo Verde tree. The first night he started in at say 3:00AM and wouldn’t stop until the sun came up. I couldn't ignore him, the AC froze up trying to drown him out and no amount of mental swearing could make him stop. I even tried putting him away with all my worries in a little bottle and putting him on a shelf. But then I started thinking about the coyote and road runner, and I started to think coyote thoughts about how I wanted to put mockingbird in a little bottle, and blow him into a million pieces. Have you ever watched “Failure to Launch?” Remember the crazy chick who goes to the hunting store, stealing one bullet to kill the “devil” bird. I think there should be a mockingbird support group out there. This was only night one. Night two, he started in earlier and went until sun-up. Another amazing thing about mockingbirds, and I’m just speculating here, they have great lung capacity! I don’t think that bird took a breath for 4 hours! Night three, I’m at my wits end, when that wicked bird starts in at 12:45! I knew he had no plans of stopping and was just gathering momentum an hour later. So, I did what any tormented woman soul would do and sat up straight in bed and yelled “Do something husband, big strong manly, able to bear arms by our blessed constitution of the United States, man.” Jed always happy to harm innocent little creatures (think bunny days) rose to the occasion and went stalking out into the moonlight armed with a BB gun, he said the neighbors would call the cops when I insisted he use the 12 gauge, so I relented. He snuck quietly out into the night and all of sudden I heard this pathetic peep and it sounded like the mockingbird had choked on a chicken bone or taken a BB to the chest. Hahahahaha!! Happy day my strapping husband was a crack shot in the night towards a unseen target. I had the biggest smile on my face you could ever imagine, and a feeling of relief flooded over me like NyQuil hadn’t been able to provide for the past three days. Now before you go call the Audubon society and turn me in, I’ll have you know Jed didn’t really kill the bird, and he didn’t even fire off a shot. Just opening our screen door wearing only his garments had scared the bird back into his senses and I’ve only heard him one other time in the last month. We will no longer be getting rid of our alarmingly loud screen door!
Well this story is getting long so I will have to tell you about the other foul fowl and noxious creatures another day. May you sleep well tonight mockingbird free.

*I really am not too crazy just passing the time until Jed gets home from a very long day of work.

Palm Trees and Offspring

Last weekend we made the journey to Southern California (I can never bring myself to say So. Cal.) Here are the highlights of our trip.

*Disclaimer: Sorry if the Offspring music on the blog is too much, but it goes with the post!

Friday
Arrival, alive, do not listen to mapquest when they tell you the "shortest" route. Should have bought a squirrel! (Anyone who has watched the movie Rat Race will appreciate this)

Saturday

Santa Monica

Jara was crazy! She loved the beach. She would run into the waves and then lift up her feet so that the wave could pull her out to the ocean, laughing the whole time. Notice the pier in the background there were a lot of fun things to do.

Sunday

The real reason for our trip, Santa Barbara

We took a tug boat across the harbor. The name of the boat was the "Little Toot" it ran on biodiesel and fun! It even blew bubbles out of the smokestack, maybe that's what biodiesel does to your vehicle. We also rented a four person bike and put five adults and two small children on it. The Swans (Christal and Brennen and Logan) went with us and my little brother, Jordan. We terrorized the city and I think we got even with the squirrel and ran over a member of his family. Just kidding. The warning bell on the bike frightened away most people, animals and children within a good two mile radius. I'm still hearing it in my sleep. That night the boys went to the Offspring concert and the women and children went to the beach. Jara and Logan had so much fun eating pizza (I think Jara preferred sand) and playing in the waves.